Attorney General Becerra Announces 52 Arrests Across 40 Counties as Part of Statewide Campaign to Combat Illegal Cannabis Grows

AG Announces Results of Multi-Agency 12-week Statewide Operation 

SAN DIEGO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today announced the arrest of 52 individuals as part of the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) Program, which is the largest illegal marijuana eradication program in the nation. This year, CAMP eradicated 614,267 plants in over 254 illegal grow sites across the state. Agents also seized 110 weapons.

“This year’s results put an exclamation point behind California’s multi-agency illegal cannabis campaign, holding accountable individuals who damage our public lands and hurt our communities,” said Attorney General Becerra. “At the California Department of Justice, we will continue to work with our partners at the federal, state, and local levels through our CAMP program to vigorously enforce California’s laws against illegal cannabis activity.”

The twelve-week CAMP operation headed by the California Department of Justice includes local, state and federal agencies that work to eradicate illegal indoor and outdoor marijuana cultivation and trafficking throughout California. Agents were divided into four teams covering the Northern, Central and Southern California regions. The following counties were targeted: Amador, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Lake, Lassen, Los Angeles, Madera, Mariposa, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, San Joaquin, Shasta, Siskiyou, Solano, Stanislaus, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Ventura, Yolo, and Yuba.

In the course of the operation, CAMP teams protected public resources against misuse and safeguarded public land and water from illegal pesticides. A CAMP team in Stanislaus County stopped drug traffickers from diverting water from the San Joaquin River in order to fuel their illegal operation. In other cases, the CAMP team busted suspects using a deadly, banned pesticide called carbofuran. Agents shut down these illegal grow sites, shielding public land from this dangerous chemical.  

The 2018 operation is a product of a multi-agency collaboration between the California Department of Justice, the United States Department of Agriculture, the United States Forest Service, the United States Department of Interior, the National Park Service, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the United States Department of Justice’s Drug Enforcement Administration, the California National Guard, the California Bureau of Land Management and the Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program and other local law enforcement departments.